MerryXmas was the first documented HyperCard virus, and was the only prevalent HyperCard virus for many years. When an infected stack is opened, the virus script copies itself to the Home stack. From there, it spreads to every other stack that is opened. Unopened stacks are not affected, but it still does not take long for most of the stacks on a hard drive to contract the virus. The original intent of MerryXmas was to simply propagate, but because of a typing error, the virus can sometimes copy parts of other stack scripts along with its own virus code. This causes stacks to behave unexpectedly or sometimes to error. In certain circumstances, MerryXmas also causes HyperCard to quit (but not crash) without any notification.

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